Cluster cutter



C. E. WEHN CLUSTER CUTTER Nov. 15, 1949 Filed Jan. 18, 1946 .CHAS. E W HN ATTORNEY.

Patented Nov. 15, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 7 'cLUs'rER CUTTER CharlesE. Alameda, Calif. Application January 18, 1946, Serial No. 642,091

This invention relates to a hop cluster cutter.

Hops are grown on vines which are trained vertically along heavy strings or cords to overhead trellis wires. The hop vines grow to'a height of from twelve to twenty feet or more and comprise a main stalk with many hanging arms which carry the crop.

- Hops are harvested either by'machine or hand picking and in-either instance the object is to remove the hops singly or in clusters from the arms.

A cluster may comprise several'hops which are attached by stems, usually united beneath a pair of leaves on the arm.

When harvesting correct practice is thatthe hops be removed singly or in clusters of not more than three hops. The berries, hereafter referred to as hops, are elongated cones Varying from pigeon egg to hen egg in size. When first forming they are quite firm and green in appearance, but as they ripen they turn straw color and like rose petals they become more and more fiufiy as they ripen on the vine.

Thus a hop crop must be harvested quickly as a sudden hot spell will often over ripen the hops.

When a cluster is picked or stripped from the arm, a pair of leaves is usually attached as the hop stems and leavesare united. The picker then should remove the leaves and separate the cluster. This slows down the picking operation which becomes an expensive and laborious task. 7

The object of the present invention is to provide a machine whereby clusters of several hops may be quickly and readily separated. A gentle method would be to hold a cluster in the hand and with scissors clip the stems, so that leaves and hops would be separated. To circumvent such a tedious process, the present invention operates in a similar gentle manner. A hook on a revolving disc engages the stem of a cluster. As the hook raises the cluster, the hops settle to either" side of the disc and only the stem on the hook passes through the cutters, the hops falling away uninjured.

A machine suitable for this purpose is shown by way of illustration in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a central vertical longitudinal section taken on line l-l of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the machine; and

tion assumed by the knives lll--l when engaging a hook to out a cluster carried thereby.

Referring to the drawings in detail, A indicates Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the posia continuously moving endless conveyor of suiting one or more clusters and single clusters are delivered in any suitable manner. Disposed above the conveyor is a pair of bearing members 2 and ,7 3, and journaled in said bearing and extending crosswise of the conveyor is a shaft 4 upon which is secured a plurality of spaced discs 5 on the pe-v ripheral edges of which are formed a plurality of hook-shaped members 6. A second set ofv bearing members is indicated at 8 and journaled thereinand extending crosswise of the conveyor is a shaft 9 upon which is secured a plurality of pairs of 7 cutters Ill-i0, there being two pairs of cutters III-ll] and lfiallla for each disc 5.

In actual practice power may be transmitted t the shafts 4 and 9 in any suitable manner, for instance through a pulley such as shown at H. Inasmuch as there are four hook members shown on each disc, the speed of rotation will be two to one, that is while shaft 4 rotates one revolution, shaft 9 will rotate two so that a pair of cutters Ill-40 will sweep by each hook. As a cluster of.

hops such as indicated at B approaches the rotating disc 5, a hook member 6 will engage the cluster and raise it upwardly towards the cutters lll-l0 in the direction of arrow a, and as the cutters sweep past the hook they will sever the stems and separate either clusters or leaves whichever is attached. A portion of a cluster will obviously drop back when out free, but such remainingportions of the cluster will be picked up again and again by the books 6 and out until all hops and leaves are separated." This operation is rapid and simple and as the hops are separated from the cluster, they drop back on to the conveyor and finally discharge from the end thereof as indicated by the arrow 0. At this point the hops may be directed to a separator, not shown, where leaves and stems are separated from the hops and clean hops result.

To illustrate the importance of a machine of this character, let it be assumed that the hops at a certain place are being hand picked. Hand pickers here inCalifornia were during the harvesting season of 1945 paid three and one-half cents a pound. An average picker will pick approximately two hundred pounds of average clean hops during an eight to ten hour day and as such will make seven dollars. I-Iop buyers require clean picking, that is the hops picked must be separated and there must be no leaves larger than a silver dollar or stems as a hop grower is penalized if more than eight percent of stems or small leaves are found in the picked hops. A premium is paid for cleaner hops than eight percent. Growers are the mass in an endeavor to break it all into smaller parts. Dirty pickers cause extra labor and expense at the kilns as the large leaves and. stems do not dry as quickly as properly separated clean hops and often after curing the balea have, to be opened, spread out and re-cured,

During the 11945 harvest, the labor shortage made it impossible to get clean pickers. Tqsave, the crop, dirty picking was permitted as speed was desirable so that thecrop could be harvested as quickly as possible. Growers were better off accepting dirty hops, andcleaning and separating the clusters after picking.

By having a machine of the character heredescribed, it becomes possible for the average picker to double his poundage, that is for instance to four hundred pounds a day as they are allowed to pickclusters and include a certain percentage of leaves. Pickers can readily be obtained if allowed. to pick in this manner and are satisfied with a price of two and one-half cents a pound. At that. 0

rate they will average ten dollars a day. Hopspicked in this manner are known as dirty hops. When such hops are hauled in, they are first run through a revolving screen or similar separator.

where all theindividual hops fall through. The 35.

remaining hops in the form of clusters or broken arms and leaves are then delivered to the convey, or ofthe machine here shown and are there rap.- idlyseparated into individual hops andlaterv cleanedby being passed through a separator. thismanner. the owner gets his crop picked at, a. more rapid rate. The individual pickers makev higher Wages, and the grower himself pays less, as the machine operation figures approximatelyoneehalf. cent a pound. In other words hegets twice the amount of hops picked for threecents apound.

The machine here shown is not only useful-in connection with hand picking, but is equallyusee ful in connection with the machine picking; as,

clusters and arms are broken ofi during machine; picking and must be separately handled. Hence, broken arms and clusters from machine opera;- tions may be fed to the machine here illustratedwhere they. are broken up into individual hops and;

4 of the disc, it is obvious that as the hook passes between cutters l0l0, the stems of the cluster will be severed and the hops will fall off. In order to insure a two to one drive between the shafts 9 and 4, a sprocket and chain drive is provided and connects the shafts as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The sprockets are indicated at I! and. I8 and the chain at [9. Obviously, cutters of other shapes may be employed, and while this and other features of the invention have been more or less specifically described and illustrated, it should be understood that changes may be resorted to within the scope of the appended claims and that the materials and finish of the several parts employed may be such as the experience or judgment of the manufacturer may dictate or varyingv conditions or uses may demand.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A hop cluster partel comprising a continuously moving conveyor belt to which clusters of hops are delivered, a, shaft journaled crosswise of the belt andabove the-same, a plurality of spaced discs secured. on the shaft, a plurality of hookshaped; members projecting from the peripheral edge of. each disc, a D8 11 of cutters for each disc, said cutters being disposed one on each side thereof, means for imparting rotational movement to the disc to cause; the hook-shaped members to engageandremovethe hop clusters from the conveyor and to carry the clusters to the cutters so as, to cut-the hop stems and free the hops from they clusters, and means for imparting rotational movement to the cutters in a direction opposite to the discs and thehook-shaped members formed thereon.

2 In a machine or the classdescribed, a movable conveyor, a: hook member adapted to carry a cluster-orhops, said hook member being rotatable about: an axis spaced therefrom .and over said conveyor, apair-of cutters mounted for rotation on a common axis, on Opposite sides of the path of movement of said hook member, said common axis being parallel to saidfirst axis, each cutter having a cutting edgemovable across the path of movement of said cluster, of hops and closely adj acent said hook member, said hook member comprising a forwardly, directed finger on the periphcry-of a generally fiat. disc and said spaced axis being substantially normal to-said disc.

CHARLES E. WEHN.

REFERENCES CITED The, following references are of record in the UNITED STATES PA IENTS umber; N me Date 79,9172 I Io1t, June 23, 1868 266,972:- Coleman Nov. 7, 1882 5 2, 59 4= Weatherbee Sept. 25, 1894. I 908,271 Jones, Dec. 29, 1908. 2,226,206 McConnel et a1. Dec. 24, 1940 

